This invention is directed to a digital display for an electronic timepiece having a plurality of visual indication display segments peripherally disposed around numerical display digits for indicating a predetermined global time zone corresponding to the time displayed by the numerical display digits, and in particular to further visual indication display segments and additional indicia corresponding thereto for discriminating between an integral global time zone, indicated by the first visual indication display segments, and a non-integrally related time zone indicated by the further indication display segments.
Heretofore, watches capable of providing an indication of the time for each of the twenty-four global time zones were, for the most part, mechanical or electro-mechanical hand display wristwatches. Such wristwatches were characterized by a bezel having a circular scale representative of each of the global time zones, with a location within each time zone being designated on the circular scale, in order to permit the wearer of the wristwatch to readily identify the particular time for that global time zone. The bezel, including the circular scale indicating the respective time zones by the localities therein, is manually rotated with respect to the hand display and provides a less than completely satisfactory global timepiece.
Although global digital display electronic timepieces have been developed wherein numerical digits are utilized to display time and a plurality of visual indication display segments are utilized to visually indicate the particular global time zones to which the numerical digits are indexed, such global timepieces have been limited to twenty-four time zones, each integrally related with respect to each other. Such a global timepiece is described in detail in U.S. Pat. application No. 768,461, which application is incorporated by reference herein. It is noted, however, that in addition to each of the twenty-four global time zones that are integrally related to a reference time, such as Greenwich Mean Time, there are additional time zones, such as the time zone in India, that are non-integrally related to Greenwich Mean Time. Specifically, the time difference between Greenwich Mean Time and the time zone in India is five and one-half hours. Nevertheless, global timepieces, having digital displays, have heretofore been unable to discriminate when the digital display is displaying time for a time zone that is non-integrally related to Greenwich Mean Time.